Report: Principal Candidate Competent

July 16, 1986|By Barbara Stewart of The Sentinel Staff

TAVARES — A Lake County school board investigation of the superintendent's favored candidate for Eustis High School principal found the man to be a competent educator in a troubled rural Ohio school district.

''I'm still interested in a job in Lake County,'' said candidate George Baker, who drove 10 hours from a North Carolina vacation spot to answer accusations directly on Tuesday. ''I wouldn't go through all this if I weren't.''

Baker said he would happily accept a similar job in another county school if the Eustis principalship were not available.

During his two-year tenure at the Lewisburg, Ohio, high school, Baker said he doubled the courses for college-bound students and beefed up the science and vocational laboratories. Bitter political in-fighting and bad budgeting in the newly formed district drove him to resign, he said.

The Lake County school board had agreed last week to listen rather than act on the report. When asked whether she was satisfied with personnel director Bob Miller's investigation, board member Anna Cowin answered that she needed to study the information more thoroughly. She and others questioned favorable references attached to the report, wondering why written reports from Baker's critics weren't also shown to the board.

To Superintendent Freddie Garner, the investigation addressed any lingering doubts about his top choice for Eustis High. He would not say whether he would nominate Baker for the third time at the regular board meeting Tuesday night. Board members, who twice have rejected Baker, should change their votes if they want a high school principal on board by mid-August, he said.

Miller was sent to Ohio over the weekend to question the prospective principal's colleagues after Cowin raised doubts about Baker's competency. Cowin had shared reports from Ohio school officials that Baker was often absent, aloof from staff and parents, and may have been involved in the school's questionable finances. A regional accreditor had given Baker a poor evaluation.

The small Ohio school district, Miller said, is torn by strong political divisions and financial mismanagement. But despite the unfavorable climate, Baker managed to improve a poorly rated school. Proponents of both political views called Baker ''an honest, competent, sincere professional,'' Miller said. The former principal, who offered his resignation in February, ''was caught up in a conflict over consolidation that still exists.''

Lake County board members are caught up in a conflict over the vacant Eustis principal's job. Three say former principal Gene Molnar should get his former job back. Two others back the superintendent, who removed Molnar, a principal of 13 years, last March for reasons he would not disclose. Garner has said he will go to court if the board continues to block his appointment of Baker to the Eustis school.